Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
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VOL. LXXI. No. 8
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Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill. Inc., at 373 4th Ave., New York.
Aug. 21, 1920
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Looking Toward the Future
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UST at present the thoughts of the music industry are directed most intently upon what the next few-
months will have to offer in the way of business. Some of the thoughts are directed still further along
the same line into next year, seeking some indication as to what may he expected in the general financial
or industrial situation that will be calculated to affect the manufacturer and particularly the sale of
musical instruments.
Outside influences may be expected to have their effect on trade conditions. In fact, they always do
to a greater or less extent, but it rests largely with the members of the trade themselves as to what condition
the retail trade is to be found in after the holiday rush is over and things have settled down for the new
year. The activity and good judgment shown in sales and advertising campaigns during the Fall, as well as
the aggressiveness of these campaigns, will all have weight in shaping the future of the industry.
There are already being offered definite publicity plans, made available to piano and music merchants
in all parts of the country. The first of these is the fourth of the series of co-operative advertising campaigns
prepared by the National Bureau for the Advancement of Music, and consisting of twelve large advertise-
ments of genera! character to be run weekly from September 30 until Christmas. This campaign affords an
open and welcome avenue of publicity for those music merchants broad enough to lend their support to adver-
tising that is calculated to arouse and sustain interest in music and develop a desire for musical instruments
in general without reference to any one particular make.
Then will come the Flayer-Piano Week celebration in October, which is to be national in scope, and
will represent a Coast-to-Coast drive on the part of the trade to bring to the public in a most emphatic manner
a true understanding of what the player-piano is, what it represents and what it can accomplish in making the
home a better place to live in. These two general campaigns might well be looked upon as a keystone by the
dealer for his own local publicity, and the advertisements in the co-operative campaign especially should serve
as a rule and guide for him in determining the character of his own advertising.
If the retail advertising in the trade in general is kept on a high plane—if the appeal is made through
the lure of music and the quality of the instrument, rather than upon prices and terms—the publicity may be
expected not only to bring business, but to keep the trade on a high piane and out of the hands of the price-
cutter and the long-term specialist. The sales campaign should be conducted along equally direct lines, for
even though the supply of instruments should equal the demand, in spite of general predictions, the practice
of selling surplus goods on a clean basis, with sales based on music and quality, instead of prices and terms,
will prove the saving grace.
The retailer who under present market conditions quotes 'special low prices and long terms in an effort
to bolster up business is doing a distinct injury to himself and to the trade in his immediate vicinity, without
enjoying any real benefit in the long run. He may build up a temporary volume of sales, but he does so at
a sacrifice of profits, if he is offering genuine bargains, and arouses in the public a distrust of musical instru-
ment prices. The result is not a rush to buy, but rather the development of a tendency to wait a while longer
and see if there will not be a reduction in other lines and by other houses.
If the trade enters into the new year with prices and terms firm, and on a basis that will produce the
proper margin of profit under prevailing buying and operating costs, then the coming year may be viewed
with more or less composure. If, on the contrary, the Fall season sees a letting down of the bars in the matter
of retail selling standards, then the coming year will find the trade in a chaotic condition and in a position to
suffer from any untoward general business developments that may appear. Members of the trade generally
can best protect themselves and their industry by holding tight, keeping on the right course and maintaining
the industry in the high position it has enjoyed during the past several years.